Editing Richard Beeching (section)

{{Short description|British physicist and engineer (1913–1985)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix= [[The Right Honourable]]
| name        = The Lord Beeching
| image       = Richard-Beeching-1st-Baron-Beeching.jpg
| alt         = 
| birth_name  = Richard Beeching
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1913|4|21|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Sheerness]], England
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1985|3|23|1913|4|21|df=y}}
| death_place = [[East Grinstead]],<ref name="egnet">{{Cite web|url=http://www.egnet.co.uk/HallofFame/beeching.htm|title=East Grinstead - Baron Richard Beeching|date=21 February 2001|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010221160115/http://www.egnet.co.uk/HallofFame/beeching.htm|archive-date=21 February 2001}}</ref> England
| resting_place_coordinates =
| nationality = British 
| known_for   = [[Beeching cuts|Beeching Report]] on railway closures
| education   = {{ublist|[[Maidstone Grammar School]]|[[Imperial College London]]}}
| occupation  = {{hlist|Physicist|engineer}}
|years_active       = 1961-1985
| title       = Baron Beeching
| spouse      = {{marriage|Ella Tiley|1938}}
}}
'''Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching''' (21 April 1913 – 23 March 1985), commonly known as '''Dr Beeching''', was a [[physicist]] and [[engineer]] who for a short but very notable time was chairman of [[British Railways]]. He became a household name in Britain in the early 1960s for his report ''The Reshaping of British Railways'', commonly referred to as The Beeching Report, which led to far-reaching changes in the railway network, popularly known as the [[Beeching cuts|Beeching Axe]].

As a result of the report, just over {{convert|4000|mi|km|adj=pre|route|abbr=off}} were removed from the system on cost and efficiency grounds, leaving Britain with {{convert|13721|mi|km}} of railway lines in 1966. A further {{convert|2000|mi|km}} were lost by the end of the 1960s, while other lines were reduced to freight use only.<ref>"Few lines of comfort for BR: The Serpell Report on the railways", ''Financial Times'', 6 January 1983, p.9</ref>